Even in Scandinavia, the cyclists' Utopia, two-wheeled types have to deal with driver aggression. In Sweden, a woman heading home from a night out with friends was knocked off her bike by a backside that was sticking out of a car passenger window.

"I had no time to realize what was happening," 22-year-old Pernilla Nordqvist told the Expressen newspaper (reported in The Local), following the incident, which took place in the early hours of Sunday morning.

"I flew. Only the head and legs were still in the car, quite a bit of the upper body and legs were also sticking out."

She said that the incident, in Skellefteå in northern Sweden, which the police have called 'reckless driving', left her in pain and taking tablets.

The police have identified the culprits, and the other passengers in the car, but no criminal charges have been formally filed.

"I'm not sure how I should put this since I've never seen anything like it," Joakim Oja of the Skellefteå police told the paper.

"The butt of a passenger was hanging out the window of the car and that's what hit the cyclist."